Which MS Word shortcut keys do you use? Well, most people use only a handful shortcut combinations like Control+C, Control+V, Control+A, Control+B etc. Have ever thought why do you use these keys? It is because shortcut keys work faster than doing the same thing with mouse. When you are typing in MS Word, pressing shortcuts is easier because you don’t have to leave your keyboard and get hold of mouse.
This also means that the more shortcuts you use, the faster you can work. As I often publish article containing MS Word tips, I thought it was important to publish a list of MS Word shortcuts as well. You can learn these shortcuts to enhance your work productivity.
Be the keyboard warrior while working on MS Word documents! Learn the shortcut keys and see yourself working much faster:
| Shortcut Keys | Description |
| CTRL + 0 (zero) | Adds or removes 6pts of spacing before a paragraph |
| CTRL + A | Selects all contents of the page |
| CTRL + B | Makes highlighted selection Bold |
| CTRL + C | Copy the selected text |
| CTRL + E | Aligns the line or selected text to the center of the screen |
| CTRL + F | Open find box |
| CTRL + H | Opens Find and Replace box |
| CTRL + I | Italic highlighted selection |
| CTRL + J | Aligns the selected text or line to justify the screen |
| CTRL + K | Insert link |
| CTRL + L | Aligns the line or selected text to the left of the screen |
| CTRL + M | Indent the paragraph |
| CTRL + P | Open the print window |
| CTRL + R | Aligns the line or selected text to the right of the screen |
| CTRL + T | Create a hanging indent |
| CTRL + U | Underline highlighted selection |
| CTRL + V | Paste |
| CTRL + X | Cut selected text |
| CTRL + Y | Redo the last action performed (for example, you can use it to quickly insert rows in a table) |
| CTRL + Z | Undo last action |
| CTRL + SHIFT + L | Quickly create a bullet point |
| CTRL + SHIFT + F | Change the font |
| CTRL + SHIFT + > | Increases selected font +1pts up to 12pt and then increases font +2pts |
| CTRL + ] | Increases selected font +1pts |
| CTRL + SHIFT + < | Decreases selected font -1pts if 12pt or lower, if above 12 decreases font by +2pt |
| CTRL + [ | Decreases selected font -1pts |
| CTRL + / + c | Inserts a cent sign (¢) |
| CTRL + ‘ + <char> | Inserts a character with an accent (grave) mark, where <char> is the character you want. For example, if you wanted an accented è you would use CTRL + ‘ + e as your shortcut key. To reverse the accent mark use the opposite accent mark, often on the tilde key (~) |
| CTRL + SHIFT + * | View or hide non printing characters |
| CTRL + <left arrow> | Moves one word to the left |
| CTRL + <right arrow> | Moves one word to the right |
| CTRL + <up arrow> | Moves to the beginning of the line or paragraph |
| CTRL + <down arrow> | Moves to the end of the paragraph |
| CTRL + Del | Deletes word to right of cursor |
| CTRL + Backspace | Deletes word to left of cursor |
| CTRL + End | Moves the cursor to the end of the document |
| CTRL + Home | Moves the cursor to the beginning of the document |
| CTRL + Spacebar | Reset highlighted text to the default font |
| CTRL + 1 | Single-space lines |
| CTRL + 2 | Double-space lines |
| CTRL + 5 | 1.5-line spacing |
| CTRL + ALT + 1 | Changes text to heading 1 |
| CTRL + ALT + 2 | Changes text to heading 2 |
| CTRL + ALT + 3 | Changes text to heading 3 |
| ALT + CTRL + F2 | Open new document |
| CTRL + F1 | Open the Task Pane |
| CTRL + F2 | Display the print preview |
| CTRL + F3 | Deposit copied data into Spike |
| CTRL + SHIFT + > | Increases the highlighted text size by one |
| CTRL + SHIFT + < | Decreases the highlighted text size by one |
| CTRL + SHIFT + F6 | Opens to another open Microsoft Word document |
| CTRL + SHIFT + F12 | Prints the document |
| F1 | Open Help |
| F4 | Repeat the last action performed (Word 2000+) |
| F5 | Open the find, replace, and go to window in Microsoft Word |
| F7 | Spellcheck and grammar check selected text or document |
| F12 | Save as |
| SHIFT + F3 | Change the text in Microsoft Word from uppercase to lowercase or a capital letter at the beginning of every word |
| SHIFT + F5 | Back to Last Editing Point |
| SHIFT + F7 | Runs a Thesaurus check on the word highlighted |
| SHIFT + F12 | Save |
| SHIFT + Enter | Create a soft break instead of a new paragraph |
| SHIFT + Insert | Paste |
| SHIFT + ALT + D |
Insert the current date |
| SHIFT + ALT + T |
Insert the current time |
| ALT + Mouse Drag | Used for selecting arbitrary rectangular area. |
How many of these shortcuts were you already using? Did you find any new shortcuts of your interest? Please let me know which are your favorites. Also, feel free to ask if you have a question. I will be happy to try and help you. Thank you for using TechWelkin.
This is fantastic. Thanks so very much for taking the time to share.
Maybe you can solve these problems for me:
1) Sometimes my font changes out of the blue. It’s like the computer is trying to get ahead of my actions by guessing but instead it creates more work for me. Is there a way around this?
2) I would like to create shortcuts for spanish letters with “~” over the “n” makes “ñ” without having to go through the long insert menu.
Thanks! Evelyn
Hi Evelyn,
You can find few samples for Spanish here :
Thanks for these useful tips. However, are there other shortcuts without the help of control? If yes, could you mail to me please.
Thanks.
Ctrl+Shift+M – reduce left indent
Ctrl+Shift+T – reduce left hanging indent
Ctrl+N – Open a new Document
Ctrl+O – Open an existing document
Ctrl+G – Go to a particular page, section, paragraph etc.
Ctrl+D Gets you to Font window and character spacing
Ctrl+W Save and exit
Ctrl+A to select entire document for cut, copy and paste
Ctrl+